Judgment Day

Judgment Day

The Park Avenue Armory

December 14, 2019

Photo courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory

The Park Avenue Armory production of Judgment Day is spectacular.  Director Richard Jones creates an impressive atmosphere and significant impact, while keeping the action moving at an accelerated pace.  He and Movement Director Anjali Mehra maneuver a cast of seventeen and two monumental set pieces around the Armory’s vast and expansive space with grace and precision.  Christopher Shinn’s adaptation of Ödön von Horváth’s play is skillfully crafted.  The characters are strong.  The underlying themes motivate the action, which builds to a stunning climax.

Luke Kirby & Cast Members
Photo courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory

It is the 1937.  Stationmaster Thomas Hudetz (played by Luke Kirby) is respected by the people of the small town he serves.  His wife (played by Alyssa Bresnahan) is thirteen years his senior, paranoid, and the subject of distasteful gossip from the same people who admire her husband.  When she spies the Inn Keeper’s daughter, Anna (played by Susannah Perkins), flirting with Thomas while he is on the job, she is filled with jealousy.  Anna kisses Thomas, causing him to be distracted and miss the train signal.  His delay in switching the track causes an accident that kills eighteen passengers.  Anna lies to protect Thomas and save her reputation.  She claims she witnessed him switching the tracks before the train passed.  Thomas’ wife confesses what she witnessed, both the kiss and Thomas’ error.  However, her reputation in the town make her less credible.  Anna’s false testimony frees Thomas of prosecution, yet neither of them can escape the guilt that amplifies over time.

Luke Kirby & Susannah Perkins
Photo courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory

Luke Kirby transforms the character of Thomas Hudetz from a meek and vigilant civil servant to a reckless, haunted, and broken man.  While we feel for him, we are also struck by how he buys into the lie that frees him from appropriate consequences.  Susannah Perkins portrays Anna as naïve, young girl, unaware of her own emotion and influence.  The impulses that propel her actions and the affect these actions have on her self-consciousness are astounding.  She and Mr. Kirby are brilliant together.  The discovery of their passion and power combined with their inability to control these emotions are mesmerizing.

Set Design by Paul Steinberg
Photo courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory

There is a synchronicity in the Park Avenue Armory with this production, as the space ignites the energy for the cast and the cast fills the space with life.  You have to experience this production for yourself.  Lighting design by Mimi Jordan Sherin and sound design by Drew Levy and Daniel Kluger create astounding effects.  Judgment Day is playing at the Park Avenue Armory through January 10.  Get your tickets and see it for yourself!

Domenick Danza

The Hairy Ape

The Hairy Ape

The Park Avenue Armory

March 25, 2017

Photo courtesy of The Hairy Ape at the Park Avenue Armory

The production of Eugene O’Neil’s The Hairy Ape, now playing at the Park Avenue Armory and produced in partnership with The Old Vic in London, is a larger than life experience.  Director Richard Jones’ vision is titanic.  Designer Stuart Laing uses the vastness of the Armory space in ways that make your jaw drop.  His design gels with lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin and sound by Sarah Angliss to magnify the power of the characters, make them feel small when encountering the larger world, and then encage them in isolation and loneliness.  Bobby Cannavale is riveting in the title role, leading an ensemble cast of brilliant actors in Eugene O’Neill’s classic, naturalistic tale.

Bobby Cannavale in rehearsal for The Hairy Ape
Photo courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory

Yank (played by Bobby Cannavale) is the fiercest of Stokers, keeping the coal fires burning in the bowels of a massive ocean liner.  He claims it is his strength and endurance that keeps the tons of steel moving in the open waters.  When Mildred Douglas (played by Catherine Combs), daughter of millionaire steel magnate, faints at the sight of him stoking coal, she calls him a hairy ape.  This sets Yank on a journey through the streets of New York City to find her.  Whether motivated by love, lust, or revenge, he is lead to the realization that he does not fit in anywhere in the class system of the day.

Photo courtesy of The Hairy Ape at The Park Avenue Armory

The themes of Eugene O’Neil’s play are viscerally understood as every element of this production comes together.  The audience, sitting in bright “yellow” seats, becomes a part of the rendition of Mr. O’Neil’s class system.  You identify with Yank as his physical strength leads the other Stokers to succeed at their backbreaking work, then struggles to redeem his lost sense of purpose.  Choreography by Aletta Collins is crisp and sharp.  The physicality of this production has a vitality that serves to establish the setting and tone of the experience and drives the action forward.

The Hairy Ape is playing at the Park Avenue Armory through April 22.  You have to experience the magnitude of this production.  It is a true testament to the potency of Eugene O’Neil’s writing.  

Domenick Danza